What is a 'Handbook of Sociolinguistics'?

The article presents a critical analysis of the book "The Handbook of Sociolinguistics," edited by Florian Coumas. An issue which concerned some potential investigators of social dimensions of language use was that of the scientific and disciplinary statuses of the two principal contributing enterprises, namely, linguistics and sociology. The author finds the treatment of the topic on macro-issues weak and missing critical references. The paper on language and identity missed an opportunity to identify some critical sociolinguistic questions and relevant literatures.